More to the point,
the Redevelopment Commission is making the moves necessary to use tax
increment financing funds to finance the cost of installing fiber-optic
conduit in the town’s three TIF districts.

At a special
meeting Monday night, members voted 5-0--they voted 5-0 three times--to
amend the original declaratory resolution for each of the three TIF
districts to include the installation of fiber-optic infrastructure as a TIF-eligible
project.

Town Attorney Chuck
Lukmann was very specific about what such a project would entail: the
installation of “just the conduit, not the fiber-optic cable itself,” he
said. “The town would own the sleeve.”

As it happens, the
process to make the installation of fiber-optic infrastructure a TIF-eligible
project is complicated and entails, among other things, an order to be
issued by the Advisory Planning Commission approving the amended declaratory
resolutions, the actual adoption of that order by the Town Council, and a
public hearing before the Redevelopment Commission.

To shepherd the
commission through that process, members voted 5-0 to retain the services of
Shanahan & Shanahan, at a cost not to exceed $2,000.